SIR showdown: Shah says opposition protecting infiltrators; vows detect, delete, deport
The Narendra Modi governments policy, Shah asserted, was unambiguous -- detect all aliens, delete their names from the rolls and throw them out of the country. Shah argued that the opposition had raised the issue only because it could no longer win elections through corrupt practices, asserting that the Congress repeated poll defeats stemmed from its leadership and not from EVMs or vote chori (vote theft). Intervening in the debate on electoral reforms, Shah rebutted the oppositions charges. His 90-minute speech saw frequent interruptions from Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who challenged him to a debate on his three press conferences alleging vote chori by the BJP. The heated exchanges eventually led to an opposition walkout. Seeking to corner the Congress, Shah claimed three episodes of vote chori involving party icons Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. He said Nehru became prime minister in 1947 despite having fewer internal votes than Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel; that Indira Gandhi granted herself immunity after her election was set aside by the court; and that the dispute of the third vote chori has just reached the civil courts on how Sonia Gandhi became a voter before becoming a citizen of India, a remark that invited sharp reactions from the Congress benches. Shah insisted that SIR was a long-standing administrative exercise aimed at maintaining the integrity of elections in the country. No party, he said, had opposed SIR between 1952 and 2004. He listed revisions carried out under former Prime Ministers Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Narasimha Rao, A B Vajpayee and even during the Manmohan Singh government. The purpose, he said, was simple remove the deceased, enrol new 18-year-olds and delete foreign nationals. Can democracy be safe when prime ministers and chief ministers are decided by ghuspathiya? he asked. The Home Minister also accused the opposition of attempting to normalise and formalise illegal immigrants by resisting SIR in states like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. He warned TMC and DMK members that such opposition would cost them heavily in the upcoming assembly elections. The NDA, he said, would continue with its policy of detect, delete and deport regardless of how many walkouts the opposition staged. Responding outside Parliament, Rahul Gandhi called Shahs speech completely defensive, alleging that the Home Minister had evaded questions on transparent voter lists, access to EVM architecture and the governments proposal to grant full immunity to the chief election commissioner. Gandhi reiterated that vote chori was the biggest treason, and later posted on X that Shahs remarks reflected a panicked, defensive response.
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